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By Barbara Slavin The Trump administration on Monday unveiled a revised version of its travel and immigration ban that addresses some of the flaws of a blocked first attempt but will still harm US interests even if it doesn’t survive the courts. The purported aim of the executive order is “protecting the nation from foreign […]

By Barbara Slavin Among many disturbing crimes in recent weeks, the shooting death of an Indian émigré engineer near Kansas City on February 22 stands out as a warning about rising xenophobia in the United States Adam Purinton, 51, of Olathe, Kansas, who has been charged with the murder of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, apparently took him […]

By Barbara Slavin While the Trump administration has focused on perceived threats from Muslim and Latin American immigrants, a more serious challenge for United States policymakers is North Korea’s advancing missile and nuclear programs. On February 12, the North Koreans fired what experts said was an intermediate-range ballistic missile known as the Musudan. It flew […]

By Barbara Slavin From Bucharest to Baghdad to Birmingham, England and its namesake in Alabama, people are filling streets, squares and town halls to demand more transparent, accountable and welcoming government. The protests have become a regular occurrence in the United States since the inauguration of President Trump on January 20. But they are spreading […]

By Barbara Slavin When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu comes to the White House next week, he is likely to find common ground with its new occupant on at least one topic: Iran. Tough rhetoric by the Trump administration, coupled with new sanctions over missile tests and Iran’s inclusion in a controversial travel ban, signals […]

By Barbara Slavin With the advent of the Trump administration, many Iran analysts feared the new president would scrap the landmark nuclear deal that curbs Iran’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief. Little did we know that U.S.-Iran relations were about to be set back more dramatically as collateral damage in a counter-productive presidential […]

By Barbara Slavin This analyst has been to a demonstration or two going back to the Vietnam War, when tens of thousands of people used to congregate in Washington to protest U.S. military intervention in that faraway Asian nation. Saturday’s Women’s March on Washington was of a different order of magnitude – larger by a […]

By Barbara Slavin This will be an inauguration like no other. As Donald Trump prepares to take the oath of office on Friday, the mood in Washington is expectant, anxious and defiant. A new Gallup poll shows that Trump – unlike any other president-elect in modern history – has actually lost popularity since the election. […]

By Barbara Slavin Next to the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, few Iranians have had more influence over the past three decades of Iranian history than Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Rafsanjani, who died Sunday at age 82 of a heart attack, was a master manipulator of Iranian politics who inspired both respect […]

By Barbara Slavin Turkey is accustomed to political violence. Coups and assassinations were common in the 1970s and 80s; in the 90s, a war broke out between Kurdish separatists and government forces that devastated southeastern Turkey and led to terrorism in major Turkish cities. But there is something particularly depressing and ominous about the spate […]

By Barbara Slavin At long last, 2016 is almost behind us. For the majority of Americans who voted for Hillary Clinton and for millions beyond our borders, 2017 is filled with apprehension. But in the spirit of a new year, this analyst hopes that Donald Trump will exceed expectations and that those who opposed him […]

By Barbara Slavin Students of the Middle East learn quickly that in that chronically unstable part of the world, things can always get worse and frequently do. This Christmas season, as millions around the world celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the prospects for peace on earth in the region of his birth are non-existent […]

By Barbara Slavin Almost everything about this political year has shattered precedent. Still, the CIA’s conclusion that Russian government-instigated cyber warriors actively promoted Donald Trump’s victory throws our system into truly frightening, uncharted territory. It has been known for months that Russian hackers stole emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, […]

By Barbara Slavin Even before he held a provocative phone call with the president of Taiwan on Friday, President-elect Donald Trump espoused policies that, if implemented, will likely strengthen China’s regional and global influence at the expense of the United States. Trump’s apparent insistence on negotiating individual trade treaties as a substitute for the Trans-Pacific […]

By Barbara Slavin Friday’s death of the world’s last revolutionary icon, Cuba’s Fidel Castro, offers important foreign policy lessons to the incoming administration of Donald Trump. For nearly 60 years, U.S. administrations struggled to overturn, contain or convert the bearded strongman and export a more democratic, capitalist form of government to the island nation of […]